Rachel Laforest
Rachel Laforest, Right To The City Alliance: Rachel has been the Executive Director of Right to the City Alliance sine May 2011. During her time at the Alliance the membership has doubled, movement-building work has expanded and the organization has launched a highly successful national campaign, Homes For All. Rachel joined the Alliance after eight years of working with progressive labor, directing the Organizing and Public Policy departments of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 and Actors Equity Association (AEA). Rachel organized and led multiple mobilizations of thousands of TWU members to City Hall and the state government in Albany; conducted extensive research and designed education and training in public policy for rank-and-file union members and officers; and was one of the lead coordinators of the 2005 New York City transit strike, after which the union leadership was jailed. Prior to her career with TWU and AEA, Rachel served as Lead Organizer/Co-Campaign Coordinator for Jobs with Justice - New York, building community-labor solidarity organizing joint actions and co-coordinating the campaign that won an increase of $2 per hour in the minimum wage for New York State. Rachel holds a BA from Hunter College/CUNY in Political Science (Black and Puerto Rican Studies) and Education.
Presentations from Facing Race 2014
Organizing for Equitable Development and Housing Justice in Working Class Communities of Color
Working class communities of color in urban centers are in desperate need housing and development. But, too often, "development" is a code word for gentrification and displacement of our communities and meeting the need for "housing" is immediately associated with building more affordable housing . Is development without displacement possible? Are there changes we need to make to the way affordable housing is maintained and produced? What kind of development do our communities envision, and how does organizing get us there? This session will explore grassroots strategies that engage working class, communities of color in organizing fights to address gentrification and the housing crisis. We are building a new kind of urban politics that asserts that everyone, particularly the disenfranchised, not only has a right to the city, but as inhabitants, have a right to shape it, design it, and operationalize an urban human rights agenda.
Speakers: Rachel Laforest, Dawn Phillips, Demetria McCain